4 ms·
> I find it fascinating that some users here seem to be attached to the concept of an alpha male, reality be damned. It’s clear that this meets some emotional/p
by api 2y ago
> I find it fascinating that some users here seem to be attached to the concept of an alpha male, reality be damned. It’s clear that this meets some emotional/psychological need for them.
Grifters and people selling right-wing politics have figured out how to market to male insecurity. They're selling politicians of course but also quack supplements, self-help nonsense, masculinity gurus, hilarious "boot camps" where you spend tens of thousands to have some dumbass yell at you, etc. All that stuff will leave you still insecure, and with less money.
Andrew Tate is probably the undisputed master of the alpha male grift. He's known as an abuser of women, and he is, but really men are his main marks. In a way part of his grift is to make his marks utterly repulsive to most women, keeping them alone and insecure and customers.
- sfink 2y agoSure, but don't lose sight of the fact that female insecurity has been leveraged and marketed to as well, for pretty much forever. Fashion, makeup, beauty standards -- flip through a magazine and look at the ads, and think about what the ads are suggesting the reader needs or would benefit from, and further think about whether the reader will be more or less insecure afterwards. (And male insecurity has always been a target. Don't let that bully kick sand at you at the beach! But I agree that the targeting has recently been vastly more tuned and optimized and the most egregious forms have become socially acceptable.)
- api 2y agoThat's what I was getting at -- historically female insecurity has been more aggressively targeted, but that's been changing. I now see all kinds of marketing and propaganda tilted toward male insecurity, a lot more than I remember.